July 17 -- Lake Van
Since I was still recovering from the break-the-Ramadan fast dinner of the prior evening, we got up late and staggered up to the roof top for breakfast at the Crater Hotel. This buffet has a larger than normal selection, but today it had two types of melons, the watermelon standard, and a honey dew type melon. I have been puzzled throughout the trips in Turkey and India by the fact that our hotels/guesthouses have always served watermelon, but almost always not any other melon, notwithstanding that in the street markets they are selling, and usually have mountains of, at least half a dozen different types of melons. I have asked about that but not gotten an answer that I understand.
We got in the car and set off for Van, this time traveling on the south shore of the lake. Lake Van is a very large, 3750 sq km, lake that was formed when Mt. Nemrut (the other one) had a volcanic explosion and blocked the river outflow. It is a beautiful lake surrounded even in July by snow capped mountains. Yet there is virtually no development. No water sports and virtually no beaches that we saw. The south shore is not as scenic a drive as the north shore that we did a few days earlier, but it was still nice, albeit there was not much there.
We stopped at a small harbor where boats take passengers to Akdemar Island. A pleasant 20-minute ride. But the highlight of the ride and island visit was meeting several groups of Iranians. Iran is about 70km from this island, but most of the Iranians we met came from Tehran. They were there on holiday. This was the day after the agreement had been reached between the US (technically 4 other countries and the EU, but the US seems to have been running the show) and Iran on the nuclear deal. The Iranians were ecstatic about this and eager to talk. They clearly had suffered from the effects of the various sanctions and embargo and were expecting that good economic times would soon return. They exhibited no hostility to us or the US. They discussed with us about the hostage take-over and their release just after Reagan took over from Carter. [Most hadn't even been born yet in 1979, but knew well the names of our Presidents during that time.] They described Iran as a beautiful country and insisted that we should come and visit. They said there were plenty of English speakers there and we would have no difficulty in Iran. We even got some e-mail addresses.
When I asked them about the history between the two countries, they often contended that both countries were at fault for the bad relations, but were unwilling to defend the embassy takeover (again most were too young to have a personal memory of that) and they rolled their eyeballs when I asked if they viewed the US as the Great Satan. They said they were taught that since grade school, but like a lot of what they have been taught, they said they dismissed that. They agreed that their government attempts to restrict the flow of information, and said it was very easy to get banned, such as US movies and TV shows. They contended that the Revolutionary Guards were part of the religious establishment that runs the country, and it profited by the sanctions through smuggling. Their impression of the Iranians in the US was that they were all rich.
The main attraction of the island is the Akdamar Killsesi, a 10th century Armenian church. It was constructed, along with a palace and monastery, both of which no longer exist, at the direction of King Gagik Artzruni, to commemorate some Armenian victory. The church walls have many relief carvings of Biblical stories that are in terrific shape. There was Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Abraham and the Issac sacrifice, and Daniel in the lion's den. The inside had many frescos.
Of course, the island had a restaurant and even a WC. While we were on the island, we saw a lightening and thunder show in the distance and what appeared to be big rainstorms over the lake. So after about 2 hours, we went back to the boat and returned to the mainland. I was feeling very run down, so we did not do anything else and Karen drove back to the hotel. I fell asleep at 6 pm and slept for 12 hours.
Since I was still recovering from the break-the-Ramadan fast dinner of the prior evening, we got up late and staggered up to the roof top for breakfast at the Crater Hotel. This buffet has a larger than normal selection, but today it had two types of melons, the watermelon standard, and a honey dew type melon. I have been puzzled throughout the trips in Turkey and India by the fact that our hotels/guesthouses have always served watermelon, but almost always not any other melon, notwithstanding that in the street markets they are selling, and usually have mountains of, at least half a dozen different types of melons. I have asked about that but not gotten an answer that I understand.
We got in the car and set off for Van, this time traveling on the south shore of the lake. Lake Van is a very large, 3750 sq km, lake that was formed when Mt. Nemrut (the other one) had a volcanic explosion and blocked the river outflow. It is a beautiful lake surrounded even in July by snow capped mountains. Yet there is virtually no development. No water sports and virtually no beaches that we saw. The south shore is not as scenic a drive as the north shore that we did a few days earlier, but it was still nice, albeit there was not much there.
We stopped at a small harbor where boats take passengers to Akdemar Island. A pleasant 20-minute ride. But the highlight of the ride and island visit was meeting several groups of Iranians. Iran is about 70km from this island, but most of the Iranians we met came from Tehran. They were there on holiday. This was the day after the agreement had been reached between the US (technically 4 other countries and the EU, but the US seems to have been running the show) and Iran on the nuclear deal. The Iranians were ecstatic about this and eager to talk. They clearly had suffered from the effects of the various sanctions and embargo and were expecting that good economic times would soon return. They exhibited no hostility to us or the US. They discussed with us about the hostage take-over and their release just after Reagan took over from Carter. [Most hadn't even been born yet in 1979, but knew well the names of our Presidents during that time.] They described Iran as a beautiful country and insisted that we should come and visit. They said there were plenty of English speakers there and we would have no difficulty in Iran. We even got some e-mail addresses.
When I asked them about the history between the two countries, they often contended that both countries were at fault for the bad relations, but were unwilling to defend the embassy takeover (again most were too young to have a personal memory of that) and they rolled their eyeballs when I asked if they viewed the US as the Great Satan. They said they were taught that since grade school, but like a lot of what they have been taught, they said they dismissed that. They agreed that their government attempts to restrict the flow of information, and said it was very easy to get banned, such as US movies and TV shows. They contended that the Revolutionary Guards were part of the religious establishment that runs the country, and it profited by the sanctions through smuggling. Their impression of the Iranians in the US was that they were all rich.
The main attraction of the island is the Akdamar Killsesi, a 10th century Armenian church. It was constructed, along with a palace and monastery, both of which no longer exist, at the direction of King Gagik Artzruni, to commemorate some Armenian victory. The church walls have many relief carvings of Biblical stories that are in terrific shape. There was Adam and Eve, Jonah and the whale, David and Goliath, Abraham and the Issac sacrifice, and Daniel in the lion's den. The inside had many frescos.
Of course, the island had a restaurant and even a WC. While we were on the island, we saw a lightening and thunder show in the distance and what appeared to be big rainstorms over the lake. So after about 2 hours, we went back to the boat and returned to the mainland. I was feeling very run down, so we did not do anything else and Karen drove back to the hotel. I fell asleep at 6 pm and slept for 12 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment